Retention of students who major in STEM continues to be a major concern for universities. Many students cite poor teaching and disappointing grades as reasons for dropping out of STEM courses. Current college chemistry courses often assess what a student has learned through summative exams. To understand students' experiences of the exam process, including how students prepare for an exam, take an exam, and respond to feedback from an exam, data was collected through interviews with students in an introductory college chemistry course. The interview data was analyzed using emergent coding to describe students' experiences of the exam process using phenomenography. Data indicated that students' experiences with the exam process could be categorized based on their reported exam performance. Overall, differences could be seen between these students' self-efficacy beliefs and metacognitive skills based on the grade each student reported receiving on the exam. The students who performed highest on the exam had self-efficacy beliefs primarily from their mastery experience, and middle performing students' self-efficacy beliefs came from vicarious experience. The lowest performing student had low self-efficacy beliefs. Students who received the highest grades on the exam viewed learning as making meaningful connections between topics, and students who received lower grades viewed learning as memorization. By further understanding students study habits, their views on the exam process, and the development of their self-efficacy beliefs, instructors may be better able to assist low and middle performing students in our general chemistry courses. The findings from this study suggest several ways instructors could facilitate more effective studying and promote higher self-efficacy beliefs, including promoting group work, talking with students about study skills, and encouraging attendance at office hours to review exam responses.

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使用自我效能感信念来理解普通化学课程中的学生如何应对考试过程

保留STEM专业的学生仍然是大学关注的主要问题。许多学生认为教学质量差和成绩令人失望是辍学STEM课程的原因。当前的大学化学课程通常会评估学生通过总结性考试学到的知识。为了了解学生在考试过程中的经历，包括学生如何准备考试，参加考试以及如何响应考试反馈，我们在大学化学入门课程中通过与学生的访谈收集了数据。访谈数据使用紧急编码进行了分析，以运用现象学描述学生对考试过程的体验。数据表明，可以根据报告的考试成绩对学生的考试过程进行分类。全面的，根据每个学生报告的考试成绩，可以看出这些学生的自我效能感信念与元认知技能之间存在差异。在考试中表现最好的学生主要是根据他们的掌握经验而具有自我效能感，而表现中等的学生的自我效能感则源于他们的替代经验。成绩最低的学生的自我效能感较低。考试成绩最高的学生将学习视为主题之间有意义的联系，成绩较低的学生将学习视为记忆。通过进一步了解学生的学习习惯，对考试过程的看法以及自我效能感信念的发展，在我们的普通化学课程中，讲师可能会更好地协助表现不佳的学生。这项研究的结果表明，教师可以通过多种方式促进更有效的学习和提高更高的自我效能感信念，包括促进团队合作，与学生讨论学习技巧以及鼓励上班时间复习考试成绩。